HTML 5 Resources & Discussion
I wanted to include a series of links at the end of my previous post on HTML 5, but I was afraid they would get lost after such a long post. Here they are:
HTML 5 Developer Group in Portland
A new HTML 5 developer group has formed in the Portland area called HTML 5 PDX.
The first meeting was Monday and had a representative from Firefox speaking (Dietrich Ayala) as well as a designer (Bram Pitoyo) who spoke to Safari’s HTML 5 support. Igal Koshevoy posted detailed meeting notes.
HTML 5 Resources and Demos
- HTML 5 Demos and Example
Very cool examples of what is possible. - A Preview of HTML 5
Good preview, but focuses on semantic markup, not new features. - HTML 5 Doctor
New blog intended to help web developers. - HTML 5 Differences from HTML4
W3C’s breakdown on what’s new. Like every W3C document, it is detailed. - HTML 5 structure—HTML 4 and XHTML 1 to HTML 5
Good explanation of the differences. - The Power of HTML 5 and CSS 3
Advanced targeting using CSS 3 and HTML 5’s new semantic markup. - Google Bets Big on HTML 5: News from Google I/O
Big picture explanation of why people are excited about HTML 5 from a web application perspective. - WHATWG
The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group that defines HTML 5 - WHATWG WIKI FAQs
HTML 5 / XHTML2 Discussion
- Semantics in HTML 5
Clearest article on the extensibility issues people have with HTML 5. - XHTML DOA WTF
Zeldman’s site has been full of information and discussion starting with this post. I’m not going to annotate each of them, but the comments are worth a read if you want to fully understand the issues involved. - HTML 5: nav ambiguity resolved
- In Defense of Web Developers
- HTML 5 is a Mess
- HTML 5 is a Mess. Now What?
- 12 common problems with HTML 5
Read this before paying attention to some of the arguments against HTML 5 - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the future of XHTML
- An epitaph for the Web standard, XHTML 2
A good overview of the history of how we ended up with a group outside the W3C developing the next version of HTML.

Jason Grigsby is one of the co-founders of Cloud Four, Mobile Portland and Responsive Field Day. He is the author of Progressive Web Apps from A Book Apart. Follow him at @grigs.